Walkabout

Remember in the movie "Crocodile Dundee", when Mick Dundee would wander out in the Aussie wilderness just to get away for a while. I don't know if he planned the trip at all, he just went. He was at home out there, he was one with the land. When he went, he called it a walkabout.
Last weekend I went on a walkabout. I drove up to Michigan just to go. I hadn't planned much about the trip. I knew that I wanted to be on a lake somewhere and I wanted to hike. I looked on the map and decided that Saginaw Bay was my destination. I also thought I would be going alone on this trip until I realized my oldest son would be coming with me. I was praying a couple of weeks ago and I heard God say "Take Dominick". I immediately answered, "But God, this was supposed to be my time to get alone with You". Then I heard Him say again, "Take Dominick". So, I asked Dominick if he would like to join me and he eagerly accepted the invitation. I quickly warmed up to the idea of taking him because we haven't had many opportunities to spend some quality time together. The boy is almost eleven years old and has yet to have been camping, so I knew this was a must.
We arrived at the bay around five o'clock on Friday. After surveying the area, I discovered that it wasn't what I had in mind. We were in a somewhat populated area with a small RV/camper park located in the center of it. I wanted to be more out in the wild. I wanted trees right on the lake. I realized that I really did want a view of a Great Lake, I wanted something smaller, more intimate. So we mapped out an area further south and decided that we would drive there in the morning.
The next morning we headed south and ended up in a little town called Hell Michigan (we've been to hell and back). I thought this was ironic since this was originally supposed to be a trip for me to get alone with God in the wild. I thought, maybe He has something to show me in Hell. So we went. We found a park called Half Moon Lake and decided that this was our destination for the day. What we found was amazing!

We discovered close to fifty miles of hiking/biking trails that had views of three different lakes.

This is Half Moon Lake. We came across it about two miles into our hike and we had it all to ourselves.

I am glad Dominick was wearing his bright yellow hat. There's hunters in them's there's hills.

We crossed engineered bridges . . .

And we crossed some not so engineered bridges.

There was no shortage of obstacles to cross over.

When we returned to the truck, I taught Dominick how to carve a stick he found with a knife that I gave him. He is making his hunting spear. What a future warrior this guy is going to be.

This was by far, one of the best weekends I've spent with my oldest son. I learned so much about him. I got to be a dad to him. I connected with God and He affirmed me in my role as a father. I will remember this walkabout forever . . . and I look forward to future trips.